Accordingly, half of the companies ended up in the red numbers last year. Just a little more than a third of the dealers achieved a positive operational result of more than one percent of gross sales in 2024 (taking into account calculating costs), the BTE said. “Too many companies in fashion, shoe and leather goods retailers have not made any money with their business in recent years, but lives from the substance,” explains BTE managing director Axel Augustin.
The main reason for the critical business situation is stagnating sales with a rapidly increasing costs. After the two catastrophic Corona years 2020/21 with record losses of 30%, sales in the following years almost reached the level of 2019 again, but in the same period the costs for salaries, rents and energy were increased by around 20 percent. “Many businesses are only on the market because the owners have dissolved insurance and reserves for their retirement, especially in the Lockdown phases, and received bridging aids from the state,” reports Augustin.
According to the BTE, the bridging aids designed as compensation for the state -prescribed business closures are currently in trouble. Because here there are always no understandable retrospective claims from the approval bodies of the federal states. According to BTE information, for example, unclear formulations and sometimes subsequently changed conditions of the bridging aids are interpreted differently depending on the federal state and the dealers are burdened with endless questions to check small amounts. Augustin: “The BTE therefore calls for a fair and as rapid processing of the many open cases to take into account the currently difficult situation of the industry.
BTE: Outfithandel suffers from Corona late sequences
